The field of the present invention relates generally to a system for facilitating browsing the internet; and, more particularly to a system that pre-caches internet content expected to be requested by the user wherein the pre-caching occurs at the most appropriate time of day so as to provide the most recent information to the user in a timely manner, and avoids interfering with use of the telephone line for other purposes for users that use the telephone line to connect to the internet.
The internet is a distributed network comprising numerous other networks that together permit access and use by numerous remote users. The dominant protocol for transmitting information between computers on the internet is the TCP/IP network protocol. Servers and other components of the internet use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) which is an application protocol that provides users access to documents including text, graphics, images, sound, video, etc. using a standard page description language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML provides basic document formatting and allows developers to specify links to other servers and files. Links are embedded within the text of a document in the form of highlighted words or images and, when activated, cause the linked document to be retrieved and displayed. A network path to a server is identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) having a special syntax for defining a network connection. An HTML compatible browser, often on a personal computer (PC) platform, permits users to request connection to the server identified in a link and to receive a document (e.g,. a web page on the internet) formatted according to HTML.
Users may dial into the internet and browse the World Wide Web. It is understood that the World Wide Web is just one part of the internet. However, because the World Wide Web is widely used, the discussion that follows below will use terms referring to an information network, the internet and the World Wide Web, without intending to limit the discussion to the specific terms that are used. Often users have sites on the internet, or web sites, that they visit often or information that they download regularly. For example, online stock traders may download the latest news and stock market quotes everyday at the open or close of the market. As another example, online sports fans may track the latest news and scores of their favorite sports teams during the games. However, these dial-up users must request a download from the internet of the information that they seek and wait for the information to download to their computer or internet browser. Thus, there is a need for a way to speed up the process of downloading information from the internet so as to minimize the wait time for the user.
One way to speed up this process has been to pre-cache internet content. Pre-caching internet content may mean downloading information from the internet that the system predicts that the user will request in the future. Generally, a cache is a place such as a memory or other storage unit where data and information can be stored to avoid having to read the data later in time. Hence, pre-caching content provides a xe2x80x9cfat pipexe2x80x9d internet experience to users. Some known pre-caching systems download internet information during xe2x80x9coff peakxe2x80x9d periods so as to avoid traffic congestion at internet server sites. These systems may download information in the middle of the night when internet traffic is light. However, the known methods of pre-caching content fail to account for sites that contain rapidly changing information or time-sensitive information (such as news, stock quotes, or sports scores) where information downloaded during the middle of the night may be inappropriate to a user""s needs, and may present the user with old or stale information. For sites containing time sensitive information, it is desirable to download the latest information available. Also, the known methods of pre-caching content suffer from additional problems. For example, these known systems may download content that is never consumed by users, wasting resources on the server and user side. Another possible problem is the risk that downloads from the internet for pre-caching purposes may conflict with or affect the user""s ability to use their telephone.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,961,602 describes a system that downloads or pre-caches information during xe2x80x9coff-peakxe2x80x9d periods so as to avoid traffic congestion at the web server sites. To do so, the system measures real-time activity on the web server sites. When the activity is low at the server site, downloading information from that server site occurs or continues. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,040 describes a system that downloads advertisements in real-time when the user""s real-time activity on the web link falls below a certain threshold level. Thus, these older systems select the time to download information based on web traffic, not the user""s predicted behavior. Moreover, when the user is not currently active on the web link, these older systems do not determine the most appropriate time of day to download information. These older systems also do not pre-cache web content before the user gets on the system in a manner that provides the most recent web information, including time sensitive information, to the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,961,602 mentions an xe2x80x9coff-linexe2x80x9d browser that downloads web pages from a list of web sites specified by the user at off-peak hours so as to avoid web traffic. This off-line browser requires the user to create a specified list of web sites that the user wants to download off-line. The off-line browser then downloads the web pages during off-peak hours when web traffic is low. This off-line browser does not predict what web content will be accessed by the user, or determine the most appropriate time of day to download time sensitive information so that the user will have the most recent information when the user decides to access the web site.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,129, the system tracks the user""s past history of websites visited, including the frequency and dates and times of visits, in order to predict what web information is likely to be accessed by the user in the future. The dates of times of visits are tracked so the system can determine how recently the visit occurred. This information is then pre-cached to improve the system""s response time to the user""s requests. In other words, while the user is contemplating what web page to access next, the system is already downloading the predicted web content. Thus, if the user selects the predicted web page, the download continues and is much closer to completion. If, however, the user selects a different web page, the downloading process aborts and the system downloads the selected web content. Hence, this system pre-caches web information that the user is predicted to access immediately on a real-time basis. By contrast, the system does not pre-cache web content before the user gets on the system and in a manner that provides the most recent web information and time sensitive information to the user. Further, this system does not determine the most appropriate time of day to pre-download the proper web content. Nor does the system take into account the expected telephone usage so that web downloads do not interfere with the use of the telephone.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,223, the system predicts a user""s future usage of web information based on historical usage patterns and then, during the user""s real-time viewing of the website, pre-caches the next page predicted to be viewed. As with the other prior art systems, when the user is not currently active on the web link, this older system does not determine when to download information. Nor does the system determine the most appropriate time of day to download the proper web content so that the user receives the most recent information.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved system that determines the most appropriate time of day to pre-cache or download the predicted content in a manner which provides the most recent information to the user. For users that use the telephone line to connect to the internet, there is a need for an improved system that pre-caches content in a manner which minimizes the likelihood of interference with the user""s use of the telephone line. In addition, there is a need to implement such an improved system such that it is capable of conserving resources on the server and client side by eliminating unwanted pre-caching downloads, and on the client side by not using up limited storage space with unwanted pre-cached content.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional systems will become apparent to one of skill in the art after reviewing the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.
Various separate aspects of the present invention can be found in an improved system, method and computer program product that pre-caches or downloads content that the system expects the user to access wherein the pre-caching occurs at the most appropriate time of day which increases the likelihood that the most recent information is provided to the user in a timely manner. For users that use the telephone line to connect to the internet, the improved system pre-caches internet content in a manner which decreases the likelihood that the pre-caching process interferes with use of the telephone line for other purposes.
A first aspect of the present invention is a method for pre-caching information from the internet that a user is expected to download without interfering with the user""s expected use of the telephone line.
A second aspect of the present invention is a method for pre-caching information from the internet that a user is expected to download which includes the step of monitoring each internet site accessed by the user, the time of day of the access, and the duration of each access.
A third aspect of the present invention is a method for pre-caching information from the internet that a user is expected to download which includes the step of determining which of the information that a user downloads from the internet is time-sensitive information.
A fourth aspect of the present invention is a method for creating a schedule for pre-caching the time-sensitive information from the internet to be close to the expected time at which the user will request a download of the time-sensitive information.
A fifth aspect of the present invention is an apparatus that performs any of the above aspects.
A sixth aspect of the present invention is any of the above aspects, either individually or in some combination.